Travel in NEPAL and INDIA...

The question is?

NEPAL

or

INDIA

If you have less than two weeks, and you're going to be in NEPAL and INDIA... which country you would spend most of your time? location... location... location.

Both have great mountains and lakes... both have colorful culture and ethnic diversity. Both country have great ancient history... what else?

In the past few weeks, I've been reading quite a few discussions, forums, blogs on the internet and study my trusty guidebooks about traveling in NEPAL and INDIA. There's a lot of cool places to hang out, to see and to experience. It really drives me crazy. I need to scale down the number of places that I want to visit, and I need to stay the selected places a little bit longer. I don't want to spend too much time in public transport.

So, this is the new direction... hopefully going to be the last. hahaha.

I feel that, travel towards Mahendranagar via Butwal will cost me a lot of time. Mahendranagar is very far, it located at the far west NEPAL before INDIA. Since I have very limited time... I need to avoid spending much time in uncertain public transport. But, the problem is... my INDIA VISA application stated that I'll enter INDIA via BANBASSA. The ideal way is to travel south from Pokhara to Bhairahwa and headed to VARANASI in INDIA. The question is do I need to re-apply or just show up at the border...

well the question goes to~
High Commission of INDIA
No. 2, Jalan Taman Duta,
Off Jalan Duta,
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2093 3510 / 03-2692 2692 (VISA)

The line is engage from this morning... :P

Well this is the new plan in NEPAL.

(A) - Kodari
Arriving from CHINA, cross border from Zhangmu. Need to be in Kodari before afternoon... since majority transport going towards Kathmandu leaving before afternoon. Nothing much to see in Kodari, if the we miss busses to Kathmandu there's no choice but to spend a night in here.

(B) - Kathmandu
4.5 hours bus ride from Kodari. (Rs300). Spend 2 days in Kathmandu.

(C) - Pokhara
8 hours bus ride from Kathmandu (Rs300) or by minivan (Rs450~Rs500). Spend 1 day in Pokhara.

(D) - Tansen (PALPA)
5 hours bus ride from Pokhara (Rs300). Spend 1 day.

(E) - Bhairahwa
Tansen - Butwal - Bhairahwa - Sunauli (cross border to INDIA). The plan is to travel down south and cross INDIA border on the same day. NOT sure whether we can travel all the way to Varanasi on the same day too. However, we might spend a night at Sunauli and continue the journey early in the morning.

A little bit rush don't you think? :)

And a new plan for INDIA

(A) - Varanasi
10 hours bus ride towards Varanasi. Spend a day.

(B) - Agra
13 hours sleeper train from Varanasi (4.45pm) towards Agra (Taj Mahal). Try headed to New Delhi on the same day.

(C) - Leh (not sure since it's in winter... maybe stop at Manali or Rohtang La)
Towards Delhi. Train (3 hours). Bus (5 Hours). Spend a night at Delhi before headed to 15 hours bus ride to Manali (1050).

Conclusion.
Hopefully this is my final plan. There's bus going towards Manali (17 hours) from Haridwar if we stick to the original plan. However, en route from Banbassa towards Haridwar traveling time duration is unknown as there's a lot of small city in between. If there's a lot of time, I definitely wan tot experience Banbassa towards Haridwar route... well like I said, trying to experience more in a little amount of time.

Well that's about it... if any of you readers have experience Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand region please do share. Hopefully it is worth going down south than experience Uttarakhand.

That's all for now... thanks for reading.